NBA: Boston Celtics’ Jeff Green looking brighter

Sunday

Apr 7, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Bill Doyle NBA

Jeff Green has become the Celtics’ most productive player while Kevin Garnett has been sidelined, but can he keep it going once Garnett returns?

The Celtics and their fans could find out as soon as tonight when the Washington Wizards visit the Garden. Garnett may come back after missing the last eight games with inflammation in his left ankle. The answer about Green may have to wait if Garnett doesn’t return until Wednesday, when the Celtics host Brooklyn. Whenever Garnett does come back, it could take Green a while to assert himself on the court alongside the veteran big man.

Garnett has missed 10 of Boston’s 12 games since March 13. In the first game that Garnett sat out, Green scored only 10 points in 31 minutes in a lopsided home victory over Charlotte, but the next game he poured in a career-high 43 points in 40 minutes in a home loss to Miami. In his last nine games without Garnett, Green has averaged 24 points to boost season average to 12.7.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who has followed Green’s career since he played at Georgetown with Rivers’ son Jeremiah, believes he’s playing the best basketball of his life. Green won’t go quite that far.

“I don’t know,” Green said. “My life’s not done. I’ve just been more consistent. I think that’s the biggest thing.”

Green has also averaged more than 39 minutes a game in his last nine games, 12 more than his season average.

“It’s tiring,” Green admitted, “but you want to be out there playing. This is what I love to do. I’d much rather be out there on the court playing all 48 than sitting on the bench. So I’m loving it.”

“I think his confidence is high,” Rivers said. “When you have better confidence, you think you can jump off a building.”

The 6-foot-9 Green has more than filled the scoring void with Garnett out, but the Celtics have missed Garnett’s defense, allowing an average of 101 points while losing six of the last 10 games he’s missed.

With Courtney Lee still not himself after spraining his left ankle, Rivers has gone with Avery Bradley as the only starting guard, Green and Paul Pierce as swingmen and Brandon Bass and Chris Wilcox up front. There isn’t a true point guard or center in the bunch.

Green, however, has thrived playing with Pierce while Garnett has been sidelined.

“He’s going to be the X factor for us,” Pierce said. “There’s going to be close games as there always are come playoff time and a lot of teams are going to be focusing on me. It’s great. He’s gaining that confidence and can be a threat in those situations also.”

Green and Pierce present matchup nightmares for teams using normal starting lineups with two guards, two forwards and a center. Rivers said the Celtics practiced all season with Green and Pierce in the lineup together, but Green wasn’t ready to defend shooting guards earlier in the season.

“I wasn’t in the best shape coming in,” admitted Green, who missed all of last season after undergoing heart surgery. “I had never played the two and I wasn’t comfortable with it at the time, but now it’s a different story.”

Rivers is still kicking himself for making Green uncomfortable by having him play small forward and power forward after he was acquired for Kendrick Perkins two years ago. So he didn’t want to confuse him again this season by making him play multiple positions until he was ready.

Green, 26, still has a ways to go on defense, but he’s coming into his own at the other end of the court.

“I just think he’s playing now,” Rivers said. “I don’t think he worries about who’s on the floor with him or anything like that. I do think that takes time though when you’re playing with Paul and Kevin and (Rajon) Rondo earlier in the year. I think that’s hard. You see those guys and you tend to think, ‘Do I, should I, be aggressive?’ ”

The answer is yes, as far as Rivers is concerned. Rivers said that Green has earned the right to continue to start when Garnett returns. So the Celtics’ coach plans to bring Lee off the bench and continue to go with only one guard in some games and bring Bass off the bench and go with a smaller lineup up front in other games, depending upon the opponent.

Green has averaged 22.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 12 starts, far surpassing the 10.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists he’s averaged in 64 games off the bench. Some of that can be explained by the greater number of minutes he’s averaged as a starter, 37.7 compared to 25.7 as a sub, but he’s also shot much better as a starter, 56.6 percent, including 55.3 percent from threeland, than off the bench, 44.3 percent, including 33.1 percent from beyond the arc. Teams can’t focus as much on him when he’s playing with the starters.

“All the hard work that I’ve put in to get back on the court,” Green said, “all I’ve been through the previous year, it means a lot. It shows that hard work does pay off. But I’m never content with where I’m at. I’m going to continue to work and I’m going to continue to get better.”

Rivers said he intended to start Green at some point this season, but not until he earned the promotion.

“We weren’t going to give it to him,” he said. “He had to be more consistent to do that. Starters have to be more consistent. I’m really happy because he makes everyone better.”

Pierce also believes Green deserves to start.

“When you put a guy,” Pierce said, “who can drive the ball as well as shoot from the perimeter, you’ve got to make a decision (on defense) on if you’re going to switch, if you’re going to trap the ball or sag off the ball. With him becoming a better pick-and-roll player and a tough matchup, it’s tough. That’s situations you want to get other teams in.”

Green was still recovering from his January heart surgery when the Celtics reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals last year and he’s played in only 15 playoff games in his career. Two years ago, he averaged only 7.3 points in 19 minutes in nine postseason games for Boston. The Celtics will need more from him this postseason. How would Pierce prepare Green for his return to the postseason?

“I would tell them to go back and look at (the last) Miami game,” Pierce said of Green’s 43-point effort on March 18. “If you want to point out one game, the type of atmosphere it’s going to be, the type of intensity it’s going to be, look at that game and it’s a sample of how the playoffs are going to be. It’s a little bit more intensified, but that’s as close as your going to get.”

Even though the Celtics have cooled off lately, Rivers believes they’ll be a tough out in the playoffs with Garnett back.

“Honestly,” he said, “I think if you have a Paul Pierce on your team, a Kevin Garnett on your team, you should shoot for the sky. But they’re going to need help. Jeff’s going to have to be great. Avery’s going to have to be great. Jet (Jason Terry) is going to have to be great. But we do have good pieces.”

This has been a disappointing season for Bass, but he’s played better of late. In five of his last six games, he’s averaged 15.8 points, but he had a two-point stinker at New York last Sunday.

“Maybe the blessing is without Kevin,” Rivers said, “we’ve removed the security blanket. And Brandon, he has to be the talker on defense now.”

Rivers said Bass was upset at a teammate in a win over Detroit Wednesday because he was in the wrong position.

“I was thinking,” Rivers said, “‘Wow, that’s really new.’”

Usually, Bass is the one who is out of position.

If the Celtics remain seventh in the Eastern Conference, they’ll face New York or Indiana in the opening round of the playoffs. Playing the Knicks would be more fun and intense because any time a Boston team plays a New York team it’s fun and intense, but the Celtics would have a better shot at beating the Pacers.

The Celtics expect to be much improved with a healthy and rested Garnett in the playoffs, but during the regular season they lost the season series to New York for the first time in Rivers’ eight years as Boston coach, 3-1. The Celtics are 2-0 against Indiana and play their regular-season home finale against the Pacers on April 16.

After Indiana’s loss at Washington Saturday night, the Knicks lead the Pacers by two games in the race for the second seed. The Knicks have won 11 in a row and should soon clinch its first Atlantic Division championship since 1994.

The Celtics had won the last five Atlantic Division titles.

The last time the Celtics met the Knicks in the playoffs, they swept New York, 4-0, in the first round in 2011. The last time the Celtics met the Pacers in the postseason, they were embarrassed, 97-70, at the Garden in Game 7 of the opening round in 2005 in Rivers’ first season as Celtics coach.

Rondo won’t be able to play in the playoffs after undergoing season-ending knee surgery in February, but Rivers is glad to have him back on the bench, even if he’s in street clothes.

“I think he can help a little bit,” Rivers said, “especially with some of the guards. Rondo has a great IQ. He’s a smart, smart kid and he’ll help. He’ll see things that a point guard can only see. That will be good for us.”

Contact Bill Doyle at wdoyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15.